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The recent recession has left many American families struggling to make ends meet and to save for the future, according to a report by the Consumer Federation of America and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc.

At the same time, the survey shows that those who have prepared a personal financial plan feel more confident and report more success managing money, savings and investments than those who haven’t.

Thirty-eight percent of the 1,508 household financial decision-makers surveyed said they live paycheck to paycheck, while 30 percent indicated they felt comfortable financially.
Only 34 percent think they can afford to retire by age 65.

The national survey was conducted May 7-20 via landline or cellphone. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Dallas had the lowest default rate for first mortgages, second mortgages, auto loans and credit cards combined for June among five cities tracked by Standard & Poor’s/Experian Consumer Credit indexes.

The other cities are New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami.

“Dallas hits its lowest rate in its eight-year history, moving down by 7 basis points from 0.94 percent in May to 0.87 percent in June and retains the lowest rate among the five cities we follow,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee for S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Among the cities tracked by these indices, Dallas suffered less during the 2007-2009 recession. Defaults rose less and have not had as much lost ground to make up in a recovery.

“The recent good performance shows that things are returning to a more normal state.”

A similar pattern can be seen in housing prices.

“While nationally home prices fell by a bit more than a third from peak to trough, in Dallas the peak to trough drop was 11.2 percent,” Blitzer said. “Moreover, Dallas is up 3.7 percent from its home price low, compared to 1.3 percent nationally. Dallas strong points most likely include a diversified economy involving finance, technology, energy, some industry and real estate.”

Abbott’s office said the new identity theft scam that’s sweeping the nation claims that consumers can get federal financial assistance to help cover the cost of their utility bills.

Using in-person solicitations, social media, fliers, phone calls and text messages, scammers tell consumers that in order to benefit from the program, they must provide their Social Security and bank account routing numbers to pay their utility bills.

Those providing the sensitive information are then given a so-called “Federal Reserve bank routing number” to pay their utility bills.

Consumers are led to believe that their utility bill will be paid if they use the federal routing number and insert their Social Security number as the bank account number.

“In reality, there is no such program, no federal money and no payments ever applied to the customers’ accounts,” Abbott said. “Customers who use the fraudulent bank routing number are still responsible for their utility bills and must make payments on their own.”

Never provide your Social Security number, credit card numbers or bank account information to anyone who requests such information in an unsolicited phone call or in-home visit.

If someone calls claiming to be a utility company representative and demands immediate payment or personal information, hang up and call the utility.

As more senior citizens enter nursing homes, they face the likelihood that their household wealth will be quickly depleted, according to the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute, which studies health, savings, retirement and economic security issues.

EBRI said nursing home stays among older Americans have increased steadily during the past decade, rising from 6 percent among those age 65 and older in 2000 to 8.5 percent in 2010.

“Seniors face a number of retirement planning uncertainties like longevity risk, inflation risk, and investment risk, but perhaps none as critical to their retirement security as health risk,” EBRI said.

There are dramatic differences in wealth levels between those who enter a nursing home and those who don’t, according to EBRI’s Health and Retirement Study.

For instance, after study participants’ first entries into a nursing home, total household wealth fell steadily over a six-year period, EBRI said.

By comparison, household wealth increased steadily over the survey periods for those who never entered a nursing home.

The average cost for a semi-private nursing home room in the U.S. is $207 a day or $75,555 a year

“Given the potentially catastrophic expenditure shock associated with nursing home stays, it is very important to examine how those who entered nursing homes in the past or those who are still living in those facilities manage their portfolios following a nursing home entry,” said Sudipto Banerjee, EBRI research associate and author of the report. “Almost all types of assets decline fast and steadily for those who enter nursing homes.”

More than 69,000 Texas tax preparers have registered with the Internal Revenue Service, as required, but almost half them must take an IRS competency exam by the end of 2013 or they won’t be able to prepare tax returns for compensation.

The IRS said so far, 154 Texas tax preparers have passed the exam and have received the new credential of Registered Tax Return Preparer.

Enrolled agents, certified public accountants and attorneys aren’t required to take the exam because they already have testing requirements.

The IRS eventually will create a public database that will enable taxpayers to see if their tax preparer has met IRS standards.

The database will also show any credentials held by the preparer.

Three years ago, the IRS began a program to register paid tax preparers and require certain ones to pass a competency test.

Paid preparers also are required to take continuing education courses and meet ethics standards.

Dallas-based MoneyGram said it has added 30 countries to its direct-to-account service for funds sent to the Philippines.

The service enables customers to send funds directly into their family and friends’ bank accounts at any of the participating 20 banks in the Philippines, including: Banco De Oro, Allied Bank, Asia Trust, Asia United Bank, Bank of Commerce, Bank of the Philippine Islands, China Bank, Citibank, Development Bank of the Philippines, East-West Bank, HSBC, Land Bank, Maybank, Metrobank, Philippine National Bank, Planters Bank, RCBC, Security Bank, Union Bank and United Coconut Planters Bank.

Previously, the direct-to-account service was available only for customers sending funds from the U.S. to the Philippines.

“There is a growing demand for Filipinos living in these countries to send money to their family in the Philippines,” said Nick Cunnew, MoneyGram vice president for Asia Pacific. “To support that demand, our expanded technology helps Filipinos living in these countries transfer funds directly into their families’ bank accounts.”

Everyone should start saving early in their career for retirement, but for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender [LGBT] couples, that advice is especially important because of the lack of federal recognition of gay relationships and lack of inheritance rights, said financial advisers at Wells Fargo Advisors LLS.

“It’s not necessarily a matter of having to set aside a substantially larger portion of their paycheck,” said Terry Thompkins, a certified financial planner at Wells Fargo in Dallas. “It’s a fact that there’s an even greater need to start earlier on it.”

In a national survey by Wells Fargo, LGBT workers reported a higher level of confidence in their retirement savings, compared with the general population.

Sixty-one percent of LGBT workers surveyed felt confident they would have enough saved by the time they retired to live the lifestyle they want, compared with 53 percent of the general population, according to Wells Fargo.

Despite that confidence, 36 percent of LGBT workers expect that they will need to work during retirement, the survey said.

“Even more pressing is that something as straightforward as Social Security, for couples who are not recognized by the federal government, there is no continuation, there is no widower benefit,” Thompkins said. “If I look at the way most pension plans are set up, there is not a continuation [of pension benefits] unless the couple is recognized by the federal government.”

The Wells Fargo survey was conducted online between Dec. 2 and Dec. 18 of last year among 505 LGBT consumers ages 25-75. Their responses were then compared with a similar online sample of 1,190 members of the generation population.